Are Relational Inferences from Crowdsourced and Opt-in Samples Generalizable? Comparing Criminal Justice Attitudes in the GSS and Five Online Samples

ConclusionsOnline non-probability samples appear useful for estimating the direction but not the magnitude of relationships between variables, at least absent effective model-based adjustments. However, adjusting only for demographics, either through weighting or statistical control, is insufficient. We recommend that researchers conduct both a provisional generalizability check and a model-specification test before using these samples to make relational inferences.
Source: Journal of Quantitative Criminology - Category: Criminology Source Type: research